New Breed of "Occult Rock"

[eric-adams]

been around for a bit now, but it seems to be getting a lot better and a lot more known.

Loving bands like Ghost, Orchid, Graveyard, Blood Ceremony, Jex Thoth and the like.

can anyone recommend any other good bands?

im finding more and more on Bandcamp. Found Ice Dragon and Bell Witch that way, and Orchid.

a new Rise above signing (i think) is Purson, who sound amazing, cant wait for the 7" thats been mentioned on their facebook page.

old band recommendations are appreiciated as well. i always miss obvious bands... not sure why.

[bazooka joe]

does WITCH count?

it's a doom metal kinda thing from j. mascis and king tuff.

[eric-adams]

ill check them out

[ginghamkitchen]

Doomwatch Beatles

[Harvey Mettle]

Try this Eric...

http://www.myspace.com/uncleacid

[ashra]

ill check them out

Think this has come up before in 'mega riffs' threads

[Cacapo]

Seven that spells. Highly recommended.

[chimptown]

burning saviours
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrXAh4fDqzA

saturnalia temple - not a fan of vocals but you might be

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KG09U...eature=related

worm ouroboros
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QT4GWuqqLY

pagan altar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-7wZyUeyTE

los condenados
http://www.myspace.com/condenadosdoom

and a whole raft more

[highland cow]

pagan altar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-7wZyUeyTE

Anyone know if there's a UK stockist for Buried By Time And Dust Records?

The label lists...

OUR STUFF CAN GENERALLY BE FOUND AT:

NWN.PROD(USA)
AFORJA(PORTUGAL)
HHO(GERMANY)
HELLS HEADBANGERS(USA)
CENTURY MEDIA(USA)
PSYCHEDOOMLELIC(HUNGARY)
ROCKADROME(USA)

Or if 9 other people want to join me I'll order 10 of the upcoming (1978 recordings) Pagan Altar LP

Worth a try! It'll be a good 'investment' folks.

[chimptown]

Anyone know if there's a UK stockist for Buried By Time And Dust Records?

The label lists...

OUR STUFF CAN GENERALLY BE FOUND AT:

NWN.PROD(USA)
AFORJA(PORTUGAL)
HHO(GERMANY)
HELLS HEADBANGERS(USA)
CENTURY MEDIA(USA)
PSYCHEDOOMLELIC(HUNGARY)
ROCKADROME(USA)

Or if 9 other people want to join me I'll order 10 of the upcoming (1978 recordings) Pagan Altar LP

Worth a try! It'll be a good 'investment' folks.

i'd take one. i missed the last two repressings because there is never any distro in uk for this sort of stuff and postage is usually a nightmare.

[Xann]

Acid Witch

Looks like there's a covens worth of new Witches.

Got friends into this stuff, will tap them up.

[eric-adams]

id take a pagan alter

[Harvey Mettle]

PM'd

[mp3000]

Are there any bands not drawing directly from Sabbath?I wouldn't mind a good St. Vitus or Candlemass or Witchfinder General clone.

[runcible-spoon]

i hate listening to this type of thing .... because it means i won't be able to listen to anything else for about a week! i wish that i knew when these type of bands were out and about gigging 'cos it's my favourite type of music to go see live ....

[e3sa934]

The word occult pops up several times on the pages of the aurora borealis records website.

Of the artists there, I'm only familiar with the music of Haxan Cloak, after a tip-off from medlar a few months back

[highland cow]

OK folks. I'm nearly up to 10 copies already so this is looking like a go'er.



I'll contact the label and then start a new thread about it so all concerned can be kept up to date.

(I should have mentioned that I'm UK based and that anyone wanting a copy should be UK based too otherwise they'd be better off ordering through one of the stockists listed above)

[Dr Victor X Storm]

Vidunder - new band on Crusher. The B-side of their new 7" 'Witches Shuffle' is even better than the A. They sound quite like Witchcraft

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn8WcbUm7qg

Windhand - awesome female fronted distorted crushing doom

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvGb1zL47Ms

Uzala - quail-munching evil occult-doom

http://uzala.bandcamp.com/album/uzala

Put me down for a Pagan Altar!

[chimptown]

Vidunder - new band on Crusher. The B-side of their new 7" 'Witches Shuffle' is even better than the A. They sound quite like Witchcraft

you've probably got witchcraft's first album eric but if not.... get on it.

just checking orchid now... killer vocals

[plushpig]

Time for the Black Widow revival:

" Come, come, come to the sabbat / come to the sabbat Satan's there!"

[Dr Victor X Storm]

old band recommendations are appreiciated as well. i always miss obvious bands... not sure why.

I wrote a piece for Shindig on occult rock curios that hasn't been published for various reasons. Here it is below if you're interested

Occult Rock Obscurities and Curios of the Late ’60s and early ’70s

It’s a self-evident truth that over-exposure destroys mystique. The mega-selling likes of Black Sabbath have had every element of their career evaluated, picked over and ultimately debunked to the extent that their dark image is now perceived as camper than a pantomime villain. Delving deeper into some of the more obscure acts of the time period reveals some truly superb groups with the added thrill that their evil leanings might, just maybe, be more than a pose.

Of course there were plenty of UK bands who wrote one-off occult curios and paeans to the Dark Gods. The best of these by far is Jason Crests’ incredible ‘Black Mass’ – originally the B side to ‘Place in the Sun.’ It’s a truly bizarre effect laden pop-psych masterpiece that bewitches everyone who hears it. Other notable one-offs include Ronno’s fabulous ‘Powers of Darkness’, ‘The Devil Rides Out’ by Icarus, and Hamlett’s ‘Vampire Man’. All are cracking tunes that merit repeated listens.

Staying in Britain and it’s a surprise to find not one, but two bands that had a similar musical template to the Jefferson Airplane-aping Coven. First up, The Ghost released one highly collectable album on Gemini Records. Several occult compositions feature on their sole album including one, ‘Night of the Warlock’ which has lyrics that would make Dio blush. Secondly, Saturnalia included occult themes on their sole LP, Magical Love. Suffering in comparison to The Ghost, the album is notable for its pressing as a 3D picture disc. Members of Saturnalia had formerly been in a hard-rock band, Horse, whose sole album for RCA opens with a track called ‘The Sacrifice’ – a riot of Satanic imagery and creepy devilish vocals.

Heading for Europe and many cite Jacula as a key occultist band. However, I have never been able to verify whether this Italian band really did release/record albums in ’69 and ’72 as they claim, or whether they are just a very good post-modern hoax. A whole German school of evil downer rock exists including, Dies Irae, Night Sun and Necronomicon, who’s Tips Zum Selbstmord LP translates as ‘How to Commit Suicide’. Unfortunately space limits how deeply we can examine the Euro scene but there’s time to mention the truly excellent Icecross. An Icelandic band in the mould of Sabbath, their song, ‘Jesus Freaks’, is dark heretical rock at its finest.

Trawling through esoteric US LPs brings up some interesting items. Electric Lucifer by Bruce Haack is an excellent curio with electronic experiments in sound and evil-sounding vocals. Another interesting American band are Satan and Deciples, whose sole album Underground features some ridiculous Luciferian vocals over a frat-garage beat. It doesn’t remotely sound evil or dark but its sheer goofiness lends it a certain charm.

The excellent Black Mass album by Lucifer - a project of Mort Garson who also did the fabulous Wozard of Id album –is superb creepy bleepy ’70s electronica and worth picking up. Slightly confusingly there are also two other Lucifers from the same time period. One from the UK led by Peter Walker (Ex-Purple Gang) who recorded two albums and the excellent mail-order only single ‘Fuck You.’ Another were an American garage band that don’t appear to have any occult influence at all

True Satanic records are fairly slim on the ground. The leader of the Church of Satan, Anton LaVey, recorded The Satanic Mass at his famous residence, the Black House, in 1968 which was then released as an LP. The nearest English equivalent is A Witch is Born by Britain’s top Wiccan Alex Sanders. Both are spooky spoken word affairs that have all the credentials required but are flaccid listening experiences, more popular for their curiosity value than anything else.

A curious sub-genre also appears to have taken root in the US – the spoken word occult cash-in. ‘The Official Witch of Los Angeles’ Louise Huebner recorded a bizarre LP titled Seduction Through Witchcraft containing invocations delivered with a sinister sexiness. On a similar trip are Babetta’s The Art of Witchcraft and Barbara the Gray Witch’s self-titled album. On a slightly more academic note is The Occult Explosion – a 2LP set of interviews with real practioners of the ‘Black Arts’.

Which brings us to the last item on the list, The Second Coming by Jamra; seemingly a one man cult who privately pressed his demented Satanic ravings onto an LP. There scary artefact is way too uncommercial to be a cash-in and with minimal distribution it’s hard to see the motivation for its recording other than to please his devilish masters.

True, maybe much of the beauty of these acts is that their mystique is preserved due to their relative anonymity and obscurity. When Alice Cooper and Kiss took the shock-rock shtick in the mainstream the theatrical elements of the occult became explicit and the darkness many dabbled in revealed to be as hollow as an Easter Egg. In listening to some of this obscure and hidden music we can still believe in true evil, magick and artistic transcendence through hellish invocations.

[mp3000]

Time for the Black Widow revival:

" Come, come, come to the sabbat / come to the sabbat Satan's there!"

Well this will be 30 years old in 2 years.

[eric-adams]

king diamond and mercyfull fate are alsways good.

ive been meaning to do edits of their albums though to cut out all the tinny guitar solos that pop up all the time.

[Harvey Mettle]

king diamond and mercyfull fate are alsways good.

ive been meaning to do edits of their albums though to cut out all the tinny guitar solos that pop up all the time.

I had a great fascination for Death SS before I realised how expensive their records were and sold them all to finance a new car...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nR-7I...eature=related

[Dr Victor X Storm]

a new Rise above signing (i think) is Purson, who sound amazing, cant wait for the 7" thats been mentioned on their facebook page.

7" back on sale at 11am today apparently. Selling like hot cakes!

[ROCKPROF]

7" back on sale at 11am today apparently. Selling like hot cakes!

Sold out

[chimptown]

whats the deal with purson - i checked stuff out on soundcloud and sounds decent but nothing especialy remarkable or different - but then the 7" wasnt upon there so i dont know ... how has their been such a scramble for this?




<oh and bedemon for classic occult rock http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VY4pX...eature=related - rough as hell and hideous cover art but...>

[radtradCat]

whats the deal with purson - i checked stuff out on soundcloud and sounds decent but nothing especialy remarkable or different - but then the 7" wasnt upon there so i dont know ... how has their been such a scramble for this?

I've been wondering the very same thing on the same evidence myself, especially since everyone has been assuring me that they are very much up my street, musically. I can't hear it.
One answer does suggest itself, and I'd like to state for the record that my intentions are not in the least inflammatory:

[Dr Victor X Storm]

You're right - the drummer is a bit of a looker

[radtradCat]

They're an undeniably stylish-looking lot.